Away From Home

[Looshi]

    The arrow hissed through the air and into the bushes, past his target. Jon cursed under his breath and notched another on his bow. He'd find the one he lost later, as well as the others. To ease up on the challenge, he took two steps forward, feeling the pang of dignity lost. If he had been at Home, he would have never stopped hearing the jeers of laughter - except from the Crow, he never paid him much mind - later in the dinning hall it would be passed around as a joke. 'Aimless Jon' 'She missed with an entire quiver'. The 'she' would get to him far more than the nickname. All in good fun, they would say.

   And that was why Jon sometimes found himself wandering away from Home, not that he didn't love the Free Folk, he wanted to be more than he was, and it wasn't going to happen with him sitting by Home fires or the stables with Cloudy and Tinpipe. But the news he was gathering, as of late, that shook him.

          War in Connlaoth. It was becoming more apparent each day, and he began to understand what Torri Clarth says about the dark clouds. He was starting to see them too.

   Shink!

   He loosed the arrow and it hit the tree he was aiming for.

   Jon's camp was a ways from the road on the outskirts of Reahj. He didn't travel this close to the city on most occasions, but stirring was the want and the need to know how is parents and siblings were fairing. Did they care about the war? Which side where they on? The Duke's? Mages? Did they miss him? He didn't have the resources to know; someone like Jinai might have, but where was she?

   It took him an hour to gather his lost arrows, and he was missing one. Today was not his day. His camp was set up by a small odd outcropping of trees and a river in the wide space of a field. They were long since dead, and they stood naked and rotting. Their bark coming off in large flakes. But they were good enough for practice. There was some game in the area, and the day before he was able to catch himself a hare. He hated skinning it, and felt sorry for the poor thing.

   As he began to stoke his camp's fire to life, his fight against the setting sun, he saw forms rising in the distance. Like it was instinct now, his first thought was to grab his sword. Not wanting to take any chances he put out the fire, and then hunkered down behind a tree. Hoping they would pass.

[Rhindeer]

It hadn't been a very good day.

What Tessa had believed was an open field and taken her sheep to graze on, had turned out to be owned by a lord. She about got scared out of her wits when a couple workers came barreling toward her, yelling for her to get lost and take her bloody sleep with her before they reported her, and Tessa had been quick to run. It was an accident; the field had been open before, but perhaps had been recently bought. Either way, she couldn't afford getting caught in even a minor mistake like that, and she covered the mark over her breast as she and Fable guided her sheep away.

Still, the herd was hungry, and grazing was getting harder to come by, the competition with other shepherds fiercer. Or rather, safe grazing was getting harder to come by. She was getting pushed farther and farther from the city, and if a lone mage's life was already dangerous, it was that much harder when there were wolves and brigands to deal with--both of which she'd had the misfortune of encountering.

Oh well. What could you do but keep on trying? Ansgar would show her the way; she just had to believe it, and trust in Him.

Night was falling, and the other shepherds had likely already brought their herds in, when Tessa came across an empty field. It didn't look like the best grazing, but it would do, and she quickened her pace as Fable kept the sheep moving. But as she approached, she suddenly froze, hands tightening on her crook.

Smoke. It was faint, but she thought she could smell just a hint of it. Smoke and charred wood.

As nothing had been burning out here, that could really mean only one thing, and the hair on the back of her neck rose on end. She motioned Fable closer, and the large sheepdog took up position by her side.

"Um...hello?"

[Looshi]

He cursed to himself. His bedroll was out in plain view, as was his cooking essentials. They would know he was there, even before they saw them. He tasted sour bile rise in the back of his throat. This wasn't good.

What came in the dark was a small voice, hesitant. A girl's voice. Only a girl. He thought, then reprimanded himself. You didn't think those things, only a girl could mean a lot more than what a person bargained for. Home taught him that.

Jon peeked out from behind the tree, his fingers pressing into the rotting trunk. Shadowy forms were with her, hunkered low to the ground, and she carried a weapon - no, not a weapon.

"Baaaaaa."

Sheep?

Sheep!

Jon breathed a sigh of relief. A shepherdess. He moved out and sheathed his sword, then rose his hands to the air to show he meant no harm.

"Hello, there." He said, an easy smile on his face. "I wasn't expecting a flock of sheep, sorry."

[Rhindeer]

Tessa tensed as the stranger revealed himself, eyes flicking to his sheathed sword and then to his raised hands. Nervously, she covered the mark over her breast with her hand, still gripping her crook in the other. He sounded friendly enough, but strangers always made her nervous, and strangers in the dark put her that much more on edge. Especially when they were armed men.

Armed handsome men.

Her tongue felt like jelly.

"I, um, I wasn't expecting, well...anyone," she said at last, shifting her weight awkwardly and wishing she didn't sound like such a scared little mouse, that she could just know the right things to say instead of sounding so stupid. She always sounded a lot better when she was talking to her sheep. "Er. Sorry. I mean, merry meet, sir, and God's light upon you!"

Oh God. She could talk to people. She could! She knew how to do this!

Hand clutching at the fabric of her shirt, still hiding the mark, she cleared her throat and looked back at her sheep. "I don't suppose I could graze here? Uh. My sheep. I don't suppose my sheep could graze here. Is that okay?"

[Looshi]

He could say the same; he wasn't expecting anyone to come along the field, Jon thought the was safe for a fair time. Alone. He didn't have much for social graces; not like his sisters, or his mother and father. Jon hadn't been suited for nobility in that way. He bit down on his bottom lip, feeling a rush of heat redden his face.

She called him sir.

He could have leapt for joy at that. Instead, he forced himself not to allow his smile to becoming an full-fledged grin, lest it make her uneasy. It would make sense for one inside his head, but on the outside it may lead others to think he had something else on his mind. He didn't want that.

"G-God's light upon you, too." He said, rubbing at his neck. The words felt odd on his tongue, he hadn't said anything akin to that since he ran away. Home was not a church, and most people left their religions at the door, and if they didn't, it was personal. Jon wasn't sure himself if he still believed in Ansgar.

"Graze?" He echoed back, his mouth feeling numb. Graze means eat grass, doesn't it? But if her sheep where there, wouldn't that mean she would be too? "U-um. T-that's fine, it's anyone's field I guess."

"I'm Jon." He took a couple steps forward, then stopped, regretting his actions. He then proceeded to look down at his feet.

Great job.

[Rhindeer]

Tessa's instinct was to back up when he stepped forward, but she was proud to find she stayed put. No need to act like a frightened lamb, right? Even if she felt nervous, she'd learned that sometimes you had to fake bravery for appearance's sake. Still she rested her hand on Fable's head as a reassurance. If anything went funny, it wouldn't be the first time her dog had protected her.

"I'm Tessa," she said with a hesitant smile, and glanced down at his sheathed sword. It wasn't unusual for people to arm themselves, especially not when they were alone, what with brigands and cutthroats running amok. And though he seemed awkwardly friendly, she wasn't quite ready to read the situation as safe.

She cleared her throat and rubbed at her arm. "So, um...were you...hiding?"

[Looshi]

His eyes snapped up from the ground, and he rubbed at the back of his neck again. His face beat red. Oh that was embarrassing. He glanced across at the herd of sheep, and at the dog at Tessa's side. Not the great threat he had been expecting.

"Um..." He echoed the same hesitation that was in her voice. "Y-yeah... I thought you were bandits or something."

[Rhindeer]

That took Tessa aback.

"Bandits?" she repeated, blinking several times and looking around her, at her dog and her sheep and her own dirty clothes. Her, unarmed save for her crook, unaccompanied except for her animals. "You thought we were...?"

She trailed off, still staring in disbelief. Then her lips twitched and she covered her mouth with her hand so he couldn't see her smile, though it probably showed through the crinkling of her eyes. She started to laugh, but turned it into clearing her throat, not wanting to offend him, though this was, without a doubt, the most ridiculous, hilarious thing she had ever heard.

"Oh, um, I...I see," she said, and before she could help it, added, "Easy mistake to make."

[Looshi]

No it wasn't.

Jon rubbed at the back of his neck, his face still feeling the flushed remnants.

"I'm... I'm Jon." He said again, not realizing he had already said it before it was too late. "Oh Ansgar, I've already said that." He was an idiot.

He tore his eyes away from the girl and looked over her flock of sheep, and the dog at her side. Jon swallowed down a lump in his throat. That dog could kill him! He thought, and his palms started to sweat.

"So... what are you doing with all those sheep? Do they just follow you or something? That's pretty neat." He said.

[Rhindeer]

Whatever anxiety was still lingering in Tessa flooded out of her abruptly when Jon...proceeded to make a complete and awkward fool of himself. For a moment she was floored, for it was still so unexpected to her to meet someone more awkward than herself, but then the amusement poured in, her cheeks puffed with held in laughter, and then...Ansgar forgive her, she couldn't help it. The laughter she had just barely managed to contain seconds earlier came pouring out.

She giggled, full on giggled for what felt like the first time in ages, as mirthful tears sprang to her eyes from laughing so hard and so breathlessly. Clutching at her belly with one hand and doubling over, she laughed until she couldn't breathe and her sides ached. It was probably the fear and tension that she'd felt before meeting him that made it that much worse now, because now her fear felt ridiculous, and this was a welcome tension reliever.

Wheezing, unable to laugh any longer without seriously injuring herself, she wiped at her eyes and sucked in gulps of air.

"Oh...oh my...I...ehehe. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't...I don't mean..." She covered her mouth and spoke, muffled, through her fingers. "It's just so...so...I was so scared you'd be someone awful and then...!"

[Looshi]

It wasn't that funny!

Jon blushed even harder. He was used to being laughed at by Alanna, but she was a brat anyways. He thought it was a safe bet that he could avoid it with, well people that didn't know him. He was wrong. So very wrong.

"You don't know that!" He said and puffed out his chest. "I could be a bandit prodigy!"

Not likely.

Not to mention he said that he thought she was a band of bandits.

Jon was dumb.

[Rhindeer]

That just made Tessa giggle harder. It was so rude, but she couldn't help it! She'd been so scared, and then to find out it was just an awkward boy?

"But you thought we were bandits!" she laughed. Maybe she should have been more nervous of him, considering his weapon, but it was hard to be when he looked about her age and was acting like a silly dolt. "Unless that was just to throw me off?"